Mafinga fire, September 2016 Mafinga
The fire started on 27 September 2016 in Mafinga, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,241 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 447th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 513 with a page). Number 216 in Zambia in 2016, of 246.
- Burnt area
- 3,241ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 27 Sept 2016 – 1 Oct 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 27 Sept
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 96
- in a single hotspot: 72 MW
- Danger at start
- 39
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.1GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 4 Oct.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Mafinga where it started3,263 ha reached on 25 Sept0.8 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
The weather day by day
ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Sept | 30.0 °C | 18 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 28 Sept | 28.6 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 29 Sept | 28.4 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 30 Sept | 29.1 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 1 Oct | 29.1 °C | 24 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 2 Oct after | 30.0 °C | 19 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 3 Oct after | 30.9 °C | 20 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 4 Oct after | 26.5 °C | 36 % | 25 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
Detections table · 96Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 20,303 haMafinga16 October 2017 · 10 days · 11 km away
- 15,016 haMafingaSeptember 2025 · 30 days · 12 km away
- 21,909 haMafinga 6 October 2026 · 18 days · 19 km away
- 13,496 haMafingaOctober 2019 · 13 days · 19 km away
- 21,255 haMafinga9 October 2016 · 15 days · 20 km away
- 7,699 haMafinga15 October 2017 · 12 days · 28 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mafinga fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 September 2016 and 1 October 2016: 5 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,241 hectares (32.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mafinga (3,263 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.0 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Zambia (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
Where to verify it
A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.
Satellite cross-check
Does something look wrong on this page?
This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.
Report an error
Where this data comes from
The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.